ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has clarified human rights priorities concerning innovation and equitable access to vaccines and medicines. The right to better targeted research, open science, and collaborative drug development has been referenced but insufficiently elaborated prior to COVID-19. Similarly, the need for inclusive participation in comparative clinical trials to identify superior biopharmaceutical products has become much clearer. Although speed is important, accelerated approaches and political intervention cannot compromise scientific rigor in regulatory decisions. Moreover, it has become obvious that biopharmaceutical companies must register their products broadly to ensure access in all markets. Although the monopoly pricing effects of patent, data, and information exclusivities have been repeatedly challenged by the global AIDS movement, COVID-19 human rights concerns now include artificially restricted supplies. The commercial prerogative to under-supply global need has exacerbated the obscene rush of rich countries to lock-up future supplies of vaccines and medicines through advance purchase agreements and options. Leaving global public goods to private sector control, market forces, and narcissistic nationalism threatens equitable access to life-saving medicines. Instead, the global community needs enforceable mechanisms for mandatory open licensing and full technology transfer of COVID-19 health products to ensure that vaccines and medicines are distributed equitably worldwide.
